Hearts All Aflame: Women in the Development of New Forms of Social Service Organizations, 1870-1930

Abstract

In the late 19th century, thousands of American women participated in a dramatic shift in the distribution of social services. In the 1870s, most benevolent services were local, religious, and private; by 1930, however, social programs were citywide, secular, and public. To demonstrate the importance of women’s contribution to the reorganization of social services, this study examines Pittsburgh’s service associations that middle-class women either founded or joined in large numbers. This analysis begins by exploring female roles in religious organizations, including the Women’s Christian Association, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and the Columbian Council of the National Council of Jewish Women. Equally central to the development of gendered social service work and to the progress of municipal reform were the 19th-century women’s clubs such as the Woman’s Club of Pittsburgh, the Twentieth Century Club, and the Civic Club of Allegheny County. Gradually, women’s reform efforts turned to founding new social institutions, including the Kingsley House, the Columbian Settlement, and the Pittsburgh Playground Association. Finally, the transformation of traditional social service work into two new female professions—nursing and social work—complete this study of gender roles. In the early 20th century, middle-class women slipped through the boundaries of proper 19th-century behavior and slowly made social service work and professional occupations more acceptable. Examining social service associations, it is possible to illustrate how women negotiated gender roles within single sex and mixed-gender organizations and, thereby, expanded Note: This is an abstract for Loretta Sullivan Lobes’s “Hearts all Aflame: Women in the Development of New Forms of Social Service Organizations, 1870-1930.”